Fiammifero
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Here's another article about Camilla, from Evening Standard (but it's not new, from July 2005)
The Princess of Knightsbridge
Camilla Al Fayed, dressed in skintight jeans and five-inch leopard-print heels, has arrived at a mews house in Paddington for the photo shoot.
Her entourage includes two girlfriends and four cats, two Egyptian Maus and two Bengals.
The cats bury themselves in a pile of designer gowns while Camilla calls for two bottles of champagne to be delivered from her very own supermarket, Harrods, which her father, Mohamed Al Fayed, bought in 1985.
For the past six months, Camilla and her bouncing mane ('I have a blow-dry three times a week') have been a star fixture on London's party circuit. Her father is one of Britain's richest men, with homes in Paris, Geneva, St Tropez, Gstaad and New York. But despite all indications to the contrary, the 20-year-old insists she is not a spoilt sophisticate.
'I have only been living in London for three years,' explains Camilla in her transatlantic accent. 'Surrey is where my parents are based, so I wasn't exposed to or affected by the London social scene, which I'm really grateful for. My mother was strict.'
There is seldom any mention in the press of Camilla's Finnish mother Heini or, until recently, Camilla and her siblings, Jasmine, 25, a fashion designer, Karim, 22, a trainee photographer, and Omar, 17, who's still at school. That is, apart from her half-brother Dodi, Mohamed's eldest son (from a brief marriage when he was just 20 to Adnan Khashoggi's sister Samira), who died in that fateful car crash alongside Princess Diana in 1997. 'We're a close-knit family, and we were raised away from the public eye, so it's been so much easier for us to get on with our lives and have a normal childhood. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way,' explains Camilla.
This atmosphere of normality must have been hard to achieve. While Camilla was growing up, her father was rarely out of the courts in his fight to obtain a British passport, a struggle which ended the political careers of both Jonathan Aitken and Neil Hamilton. 'I was aware of what was going on and it gave me the view that my father is a very strong man who had to fight all the time. It's definitely made me a stronger person.'
Camilla has a British passport, and thinks it ridiculous that her father was denied one. 'Of course it's upsetting because I don't get to see him as much, but he spends time in Paris concentrating on The Ritz, his business there.'
Camilla went to six different schools, including boarding schools Roedean and Hurtwood House, and then Collingham tutorial in London.
'People were never nasty or anything at school, in fact it was probably the opposite teachers were always offering their support for my dad,' she says, lighting up a cigarette, her manicured nails a deep red.
'Kids can be cruel, but I'd never let them be. If people had something to say, they could say it to my face.'
However, she did learn early on about opportunists wanting to take advantage of being friends with her. 'Things like that happened to my older sister; people took advantage of her and that opened my eyes at a young age. So I can count my friends on one hand and everyone else I keep at arm's length.'
It must have been tricky I imagine that everyone in Camilla's class was vying to procure an invite to the Al Fayeds' 500-acre Surrey estate, particularly when they found out that visitors included Michael Jackson and Sylvester Stallone.
'It was surreal coming home from school and there's Michael Jackson,' she says.
'He'd been my idol since I was tiny. It was around the time my dad had bought Fulham [football club] and Michael Jackson was obsessed with football and had gone to the game with him.'
Equally surreal were the occasions on which Camilla and her siblings were let loose in the toy department of Harrods once the store had shut.
Today, Camilla enjoys more adult diversions.
She is surrounded by racks and racks of clothes by her friend Daniella Helayel, the Brazilian designer behind fashion label Issa. The pair have been inseparable since they met at a party thrown by Helayel at Annabel's in March. 'We made eye contact and after two minutes we were friends. Camilla is my new muse,' says Daniella in her thick Brazilian accent. Since meeting, the duo have travelled all over the world: to Cannes for the film festival, where they stayed at the Hotel du Cap; to accessory designer and son of the Bottega Veneta owners Gabriele Corto Moltedo's three-day birthday party in Padua; to see Pete Doherty sing at a Babyshambles concert; and now they're off to Brazil's fashion week together, where Camilla will be sourcing new labels for Harrods.
'Eventually I want to be the creative director of fashion at Harrods,' she explains.
'But for now I'm learning the ropes and who better to learn from than my father. I know a lot about the business already because I've lived and breathed Harrods since I was zero. I've done everything from working on the shopfloor to the buying to helping in the marketing office.'
Camilla didn't go to university 'because I'm not an academic'. Instead, after school, she helped her older sister Jasmine start up her fashion label and shop, Jasmine Di Milo, which is based in Harrods. 'I was also taking acting classes, but I didn't become an actress because I like fashion so much more,' she says, 'and reading through hours of Chaucer and Shakespeare did not rock my boat.'
Camilla's commitment to fashion is absolute.
Earlier this year she did work experience at Vogue and while there landed the coveted job of assisting Anna Wintour at American Vogue.
'Nicholas Coleridge [managing director of Conde Nast], who is a good friend of my father's, took me to an awards ceremony and introduced me to Anna,' she explains. 'I'm very keen on her sense of style, which is so different from the way English people dress. She is glamorous and wellgroomed, which I can relate to. Some people say that she's scary, but I have total respect for someone like that. Anyway, you have to be a bit shrewd and crude to get through the business.'
So, from September, Camilla will be living in the family apartment in New York, taking with her two of her four cats. 'My mum also has a severe obsession with animals,' she says. 'She has nine dogs, 17 cats, horses, alpacas and llamas.'
But for the moment, Camilla is busy redecorating the Mayfair apartment where she lives alone (her brother Karim lives in the same building.) 'I want it to be a place where I can still feel happy in ten years' time, so it's quite neutral.'
And, of course, it's where she houses her vast collection of clothes, including piles of Balenciaga and Christian Louboutin shoes.
Camilla doesn't have a boyfriend, or rather if she does she's not telling me. 'I think the right guy comes with experience and when the time is right,' she says with a grin which vanishes immediately when I ask if she was close to her half-brother, Diana's boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed. 'I was young at the time, so it was hard,' she says. And how does she feel about her father's conspiracy theory that Dodi and Diana were murdered?
'Nobody wants to say it, but it's very much on the tips of people's tongues,' says Camilla. 'But my father is a strong man and he won't stop until he gets the truth, and he's almost there.'
As she leaves, Camilla opens the front door of Issa's Paddington HQ to find a parking attendant standing by my Mini writing out a ticket. The warden's jaw visibly drops when he sees Camilla approach, all long legs and gravity-defying hair. 'Oh, please don't give her a ticket,' she says sweetly.
The warden stops scribbling and, spellbound, rips up the fine. Life is sweet for Camilla Al Fayed.
The Princess of Knightsbridge
Camilla Al Fayed, dressed in skintight jeans and five-inch leopard-print heels, has arrived at a mews house in Paddington for the photo shoot.
Her entourage includes two girlfriends and four cats, two Egyptian Maus and two Bengals.
The cats bury themselves in a pile of designer gowns while Camilla calls for two bottles of champagne to be delivered from her very own supermarket, Harrods, which her father, Mohamed Al Fayed, bought in 1985.
For the past six months, Camilla and her bouncing mane ('I have a blow-dry three times a week') have been a star fixture on London's party circuit. Her father is one of Britain's richest men, with homes in Paris, Geneva, St Tropez, Gstaad and New York. But despite all indications to the contrary, the 20-year-old insists she is not a spoilt sophisticate.
'I have only been living in London for three years,' explains Camilla in her transatlantic accent. 'Surrey is where my parents are based, so I wasn't exposed to or affected by the London social scene, which I'm really grateful for. My mother was strict.'
There is seldom any mention in the press of Camilla's Finnish mother Heini or, until recently, Camilla and her siblings, Jasmine, 25, a fashion designer, Karim, 22, a trainee photographer, and Omar, 17, who's still at school. That is, apart from her half-brother Dodi, Mohamed's eldest son (from a brief marriage when he was just 20 to Adnan Khashoggi's sister Samira), who died in that fateful car crash alongside Princess Diana in 1997. 'We're a close-knit family, and we were raised away from the public eye, so it's been so much easier for us to get on with our lives and have a normal childhood. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way,' explains Camilla.
This atmosphere of normality must have been hard to achieve. While Camilla was growing up, her father was rarely out of the courts in his fight to obtain a British passport, a struggle which ended the political careers of both Jonathan Aitken and Neil Hamilton. 'I was aware of what was going on and it gave me the view that my father is a very strong man who had to fight all the time. It's definitely made me a stronger person.'
Camilla has a British passport, and thinks it ridiculous that her father was denied one. 'Of course it's upsetting because I don't get to see him as much, but he spends time in Paris concentrating on The Ritz, his business there.'
Camilla went to six different schools, including boarding schools Roedean and Hurtwood House, and then Collingham tutorial in London.
'People were never nasty or anything at school, in fact it was probably the opposite teachers were always offering their support for my dad,' she says, lighting up a cigarette, her manicured nails a deep red.
'Kids can be cruel, but I'd never let them be. If people had something to say, they could say it to my face.'
However, she did learn early on about opportunists wanting to take advantage of being friends with her. 'Things like that happened to my older sister; people took advantage of her and that opened my eyes at a young age. So I can count my friends on one hand and everyone else I keep at arm's length.'
It must have been tricky I imagine that everyone in Camilla's class was vying to procure an invite to the Al Fayeds' 500-acre Surrey estate, particularly when they found out that visitors included Michael Jackson and Sylvester Stallone.
'It was surreal coming home from school and there's Michael Jackson,' she says.
'He'd been my idol since I was tiny. It was around the time my dad had bought Fulham [football club] and Michael Jackson was obsessed with football and had gone to the game with him.'
Equally surreal were the occasions on which Camilla and her siblings were let loose in the toy department of Harrods once the store had shut.
Today, Camilla enjoys more adult diversions.
She is surrounded by racks and racks of clothes by her friend Daniella Helayel, the Brazilian designer behind fashion label Issa. The pair have been inseparable since they met at a party thrown by Helayel at Annabel's in March. 'We made eye contact and after two minutes we were friends. Camilla is my new muse,' says Daniella in her thick Brazilian accent. Since meeting, the duo have travelled all over the world: to Cannes for the film festival, where they stayed at the Hotel du Cap; to accessory designer and son of the Bottega Veneta owners Gabriele Corto Moltedo's three-day birthday party in Padua; to see Pete Doherty sing at a Babyshambles concert; and now they're off to Brazil's fashion week together, where Camilla will be sourcing new labels for Harrods.
'Eventually I want to be the creative director of fashion at Harrods,' she explains.
'But for now I'm learning the ropes and who better to learn from than my father. I know a lot about the business already because I've lived and breathed Harrods since I was zero. I've done everything from working on the shopfloor to the buying to helping in the marketing office.'
Camilla didn't go to university 'because I'm not an academic'. Instead, after school, she helped her older sister Jasmine start up her fashion label and shop, Jasmine Di Milo, which is based in Harrods. 'I was also taking acting classes, but I didn't become an actress because I like fashion so much more,' she says, 'and reading through hours of Chaucer and Shakespeare did not rock my boat.'
Camilla's commitment to fashion is absolute.
Earlier this year she did work experience at Vogue and while there landed the coveted job of assisting Anna Wintour at American Vogue.
'Nicholas Coleridge [managing director of Conde Nast], who is a good friend of my father's, took me to an awards ceremony and introduced me to Anna,' she explains. 'I'm very keen on her sense of style, which is so different from the way English people dress. She is glamorous and wellgroomed, which I can relate to. Some people say that she's scary, but I have total respect for someone like that. Anyway, you have to be a bit shrewd and crude to get through the business.'
So, from September, Camilla will be living in the family apartment in New York, taking with her two of her four cats. 'My mum also has a severe obsession with animals,' she says. 'She has nine dogs, 17 cats, horses, alpacas and llamas.'
But for the moment, Camilla is busy redecorating the Mayfair apartment where she lives alone (her brother Karim lives in the same building.) 'I want it to be a place where I can still feel happy in ten years' time, so it's quite neutral.'
And, of course, it's where she houses her vast collection of clothes, including piles of Balenciaga and Christian Louboutin shoes.
Camilla doesn't have a boyfriend, or rather if she does she's not telling me. 'I think the right guy comes with experience and when the time is right,' she says with a grin which vanishes immediately when I ask if she was close to her half-brother, Diana's boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed. 'I was young at the time, so it was hard,' she says. And how does she feel about her father's conspiracy theory that Dodi and Diana were murdered?
'Nobody wants to say it, but it's very much on the tips of people's tongues,' says Camilla. 'But my father is a strong man and he won't stop until he gets the truth, and he's almost there.'
As she leaves, Camilla opens the front door of Issa's Paddington HQ to find a parking attendant standing by my Mini writing out a ticket. The warden's jaw visibly drops when he sees Camilla approach, all long legs and gravity-defying hair. 'Oh, please don't give her a ticket,' she says sweetly.
The warden stops scribbling and, spellbound, rips up the fine. Life is sweet for Camilla Al Fayed.
